On Fire With Enthusiasm

"Catch on fire with enthusiasm, and people will come for miles to watch you burn." - John Wesley

On Sunday, I confirmed 4 young women in our congregation. As part of our confirmation classes, I took them to our United Methodist Conference Center, where they met our bishop. While there, they learned about Imagine No Malaria, the UMC campaign to eradicate malaria by 2015. The bishop told them that for just $10, an insecticide-treated bed net can be sent to a family, thus saving a life from malaria.

After leaving the bishop's office, 2 of our confirmands pulled out $10 bills and pleaded for me to allow them to run back into his office to give him a donation. The other 2 confirmands begged me to lend them $10 so they could do the same thing. All it took was a few minutes with the bishop, and these 4 young women were ready to save the world from malaria.

It gets better. The following Sunday, one of the confirmands came in with a wad of cash in her hand. "Here you go," she said. "It's half of the money I got for my birthday as gifts this week. Can you give this to the bishop for the malaria thing?"

We adults think we're hot stuff with our 10% tithing, and here's a teenager ready to give half of her birthday money to help people halfway around the world. With these 4 confirmands, you'll never hear me call them the future leaders of the church. No, they're leaders of the church right now. They've allowed themselves to catch on fire with enthusiasm, caring enough for all God's children that they will give generously from their many blessings.

Now, they're leading a 4 week event in our congregation to raise money for Imagine No Malaria. It was a privilege to confirm them on Sunday, allowing them to profess their faith in Christ, to stand on their own as members of Christ's church, and to be so caught on fire by the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday that people will come for miles to help these young, vibrant leaders eradicate Malaria.

Two

Two years ago, I married the most wonderful woman in the world. Life has been nothing short of amazing over these two years. In that time, we've hiked through mountains, beaches, cliffs, canyons, and volcanoes together. We've attended baseball, football, basketball, and hockey games. We've seen plays, musicals, and concerts. We've traveled to urban centers of civilization, and escaped into uninhabited landscapes. We've shared the joys of marriage and new birth in the lives of siblings and friends. We've begun a new life together in West Newton. I am amazed at the memories we've made in such a short period of time.

But perhaps the best memories of all are the less spectacular ones. Sitting on the porch swing and listening to the ballgame on the radio. Taking an evening walk through town. Watching old movies. Standoffs about who must do the dishes. Laughing for hours at our ridiculous cats. Staging epic ping-pong battles for the best prize of all: bragging rights. Tripping over each other every night as we brush our teeth in our incredibly small bathroom.

It's been a great 2 years, and I am just as madly in love with Lisa Joy Lindquist Hoeke as I was the day I met her - the freshman girl bold enough to hang a Terrible Towel on her dorm room door in the heart of Cleveland Browns territory. We share an anniversary with two couples in our congregation: one celebrating 35 years of marriage today, the other celebrating 60 years. Here's hoping we make it through another 58 years.

Punctuation

Today, I drove by a restaurant whose sign currently reads, "Let's Go Bucs?" At first, I thought perhaps someone mistakenly put a question mark where there should be an exclamation point. But then, I realized that it was probably meant to be mocking sarcasm of the local baseball team, as has been customary for years in this area. So I began to wonder what message the punctuation was trying to send:

"Is this all we have to keep us going between the end of hockey season and the beginning of football season?"

"Seeing as all the inexplicably popular but mediocre (at best) players have been traded away, who are these guys?"

"Are the Pirates going to move to a new city?"

Everyone knows by now that the Pirates are one big question mark. Some people find hope in that question mark, and others find only despair. But the point is, it's been a long, long, long time since we've had a baseball team worth exclamations -- whether you look at the 30 years and counting without a title, or the 17 years and counting without a winning record.

The Bible was originally written and transcribed sans punctuation. This means that the punctuation marks of scripture are actually interpretations of the text. So, when we read John 20:16, for instance, and we hear Mary say, "Rabbouni!" (which means teacher), it means that someone in the annals of history interpreted Mary's words as an exclamation. But what if it was a question? What if Mary wasn't so sure this gardener was her beloved Jesus?

Our own encounters with Jesus are punctuated as well. Sometimes, we see the presence of Jesus in our lives, and we can hardly hold back as we exclaim, "Rabbouni!" Other times, we sense his presence, but we're not sure if it really is our Lord and Savior, so we curiously ask, "Rabbouni?" And then there are times that Jesus is simply there, and in our need for comfort and rest, we breathe a sigh of relief: "Rabbouni." Finally, there might be times that our encounter with Jesus opens us up into a deeper discovery, a new understanding, or the beginning of a sacred story, and we expectantly whisper, "Rabbouni..."

Whatever punctuation is placed on your faith today, I pray that you have encountered the Risen Christ today. For the Christian, every day is Easter. Every day is the day of resurrection.